Donald Trump rules out deployment of US troops in Ukraine
'I'm just trying to stop people from being killed,' he told Fox News in a phone interview.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Vladimir Putin is open to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, either as a one-on-one or alongside President Trump, without committing to a timetable.
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The Advertiser
14 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
China to showcase military might with massive parade
China will stage a massive military parade next month involving tens of thousands of people in the heart of Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two, following the surrender of Japan. Hundreds of aircraft including fighter jets and bombers as well as ground equipment, some of which have never been seen in public before, will be featured in the parade, military officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. The parade on September 3, the second such procession since 2015 to observe the formal surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, will be a show of China's military strength as some of its neighbours and Western nations look on with concern over the projection of power by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. From trucks fitted with devices to take out drones, new tanks and early warning aircraft to protect China's aircraft carriers, military attaches and security analysts say they are expecting China to display a host of new weapons and equipment at the parade. Additions to its expanding suite of missiles, particularly anti-ship versions and weapons with hypersonic capabilities, will be particularly closely watched as the US and its allies prepare to counter China in any future regional conflict. "(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military's robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars," Wu Zeke, deputy director of the military parade, told reporters. The 70-minute-long "Victory Day" parade, comprising 45 contingents of troops, will be surveyed by President Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square alongside a number of foreign leaders and dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also attended the 2015 parade. At the last World War Two parade, more than 12,000 soldiers, including diverse contingents from Russia and Belarus to Mongolia and Cambodia, marched through the city alongside veterans. Beijing had also mobilised over 500 pieces of military equipment and 200 aircraft. Many Western leaders had shunned the 2015 event, wary of the message that China would send with its exhibition of military might. China will stage a massive military parade next month involving tens of thousands of people in the heart of Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two, following the surrender of Japan. Hundreds of aircraft including fighter jets and bombers as well as ground equipment, some of which have never been seen in public before, will be featured in the parade, military officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. The parade on September 3, the second such procession since 2015 to observe the formal surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, will be a show of China's military strength as some of its neighbours and Western nations look on with concern over the projection of power by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. From trucks fitted with devices to take out drones, new tanks and early warning aircraft to protect China's aircraft carriers, military attaches and security analysts say they are expecting China to display a host of new weapons and equipment at the parade. Additions to its expanding suite of missiles, particularly anti-ship versions and weapons with hypersonic capabilities, will be particularly closely watched as the US and its allies prepare to counter China in any future regional conflict. "(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military's robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars," Wu Zeke, deputy director of the military parade, told reporters. The 70-minute-long "Victory Day" parade, comprising 45 contingents of troops, will be surveyed by President Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square alongside a number of foreign leaders and dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also attended the 2015 parade. At the last World War Two parade, more than 12,000 soldiers, including diverse contingents from Russia and Belarus to Mongolia and Cambodia, marched through the city alongside veterans. Beijing had also mobilised over 500 pieces of military equipment and 200 aircraft. Many Western leaders had shunned the 2015 event, wary of the message that China would send with its exhibition of military might. China will stage a massive military parade next month involving tens of thousands of people in the heart of Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two, following the surrender of Japan. Hundreds of aircraft including fighter jets and bombers as well as ground equipment, some of which have never been seen in public before, will be featured in the parade, military officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. The parade on September 3, the second such procession since 2015 to observe the formal surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, will be a show of China's military strength as some of its neighbours and Western nations look on with concern over the projection of power by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. From trucks fitted with devices to take out drones, new tanks and early warning aircraft to protect China's aircraft carriers, military attaches and security analysts say they are expecting China to display a host of new weapons and equipment at the parade. Additions to its expanding suite of missiles, particularly anti-ship versions and weapons with hypersonic capabilities, will be particularly closely watched as the US and its allies prepare to counter China in any future regional conflict. "(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military's robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars," Wu Zeke, deputy director of the military parade, told reporters. The 70-minute-long "Victory Day" parade, comprising 45 contingents of troops, will be surveyed by President Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square alongside a number of foreign leaders and dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also attended the 2015 parade. At the last World War Two parade, more than 12,000 soldiers, including diverse contingents from Russia and Belarus to Mongolia and Cambodia, marched through the city alongside veterans. Beijing had also mobilised over 500 pieces of military equipment and 200 aircraft. Many Western leaders had shunned the 2015 event, wary of the message that China would send with its exhibition of military might. China will stage a massive military parade next month involving tens of thousands of people in the heart of Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two, following the surrender of Japan. Hundreds of aircraft including fighter jets and bombers as well as ground equipment, some of which have never been seen in public before, will be featured in the parade, military officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. The parade on September 3, the second such procession since 2015 to observe the formal surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, will be a show of China's military strength as some of its neighbours and Western nations look on with concern over the projection of power by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. From trucks fitted with devices to take out drones, new tanks and early warning aircraft to protect China's aircraft carriers, military attaches and security analysts say they are expecting China to display a host of new weapons and equipment at the parade. Additions to its expanding suite of missiles, particularly anti-ship versions and weapons with hypersonic capabilities, will be particularly closely watched as the US and its allies prepare to counter China in any future regional conflict. "(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military's robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars," Wu Zeke, deputy director of the military parade, told reporters. The 70-minute-long "Victory Day" parade, comprising 45 contingents of troops, will be surveyed by President Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square alongside a number of foreign leaders and dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also attended the 2015 parade. At the last World War Two parade, more than 12,000 soldiers, including diverse contingents from Russia and Belarus to Mongolia and Cambodia, marched through the city alongside veterans. Beijing had also mobilised over 500 pieces of military equipment and 200 aircraft. Many Western leaders had shunned the 2015 event, wary of the message that China would send with its exhibition of military might.
The Advertiser
23 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
If the dead could see the world as it is today
This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to I wonder what they'd make of the world were they still around to see it. My mother, the political scientist, saw World War II through the eyes of a child, only to shiver through the chill of the Cold War as an adult. Her brother, the journalist, who on his deathbed a quarter of a century ago lamented the creeping aggression in the society he was soon to leave. The world they left was very different to the one that confounds us today. He died the year before Al Qaeda flew the hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon; she almost a year to the day after the US launched its disastrous invasion of Iraq. Both missed the advent of social media and its toxic effect on public discourse. And they were spared the relentless 24-hour news cycle, which was only in its infancy. There were no influencers then and reality TV, with its manufactured "celebrities", was only just taking off - not that either would have bothered watching any of it. And they would have scoffed at any suggestion Donald Trump could step from the pages of trashy gossip magazines into the corridors of power. Indeed, I doubt they'd have known who he was. My mother had watched with keen interest the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Vladimir Putin was a relative newcomer when she died, first elected in 2000, then re-elected in 2004. She'd have had no inkling that he'd manoeuvre himself into unassailable power and embark on a program of territorial expansion. I imagine she'd have been horrified by the serial defenestration, poisoning and imprisonment of his political rivals. A celebrated motoring writer, my uncle had an abiding love of European - especially Italian - cars. I often wonder how he'd feel about the vehicles that infest our modern roads. Surely, the bloated utes and American pick-up trucks would have him rolling in his grave. Would he be horrified by the profusion of digital touch screens and dashboards? I doubt he'd warm to driving an iPad. Nor can I see him coping with the aggression on our roads, which seems to have become worse since he died. Maybe that's because of the ubiquity of the smartphone with its camera, as well as the dashcam - technology he didn't see - recording so many instances of road rage and reckless driving. I think of my mother and uncle frequently these days. Part of me wants to bring them back to life, to talk about the troubling state of the world, to help me make sense of it. But then I baulk. They should rest in peace and be spared the cruelty, vulgarity and idiocy to which we have to bear witness in this first quarter of the 21st century. HAVE YOUR SAY: What would your departed relatives make of the modern world? Has life improved since they were alive? Or has it become harder to make sense of? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Australia's second-largest internet company, TPG Telecom, says it has been hit by a cyberattack, affecting 280,000 customers. - The Coalition appears likely to support any government decision to send Australian peacekeepers to Ukraine if security talks between US and European leaders bring peace to the war-torn nation. - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised the government's economic roundtable will deliver long-lasting change through consensus, as he opened the three-day summit in Canberra. THEY SAID IT: "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." - James Baldwin YOU SAID IT: An ugly word has crept into our language, thanks to the pathologically transactional Donald Trump. Wherever possible, we should ditch the word "deal". "I'm so very tired of hearing of Trump's deals and no deals, and of the winners and losers," writes Deb. "How very sad that he is a role model to a generation of boys and young men. I'm so glad I'm of the age that I'm on my way out, rather than on the way in, I'm ashamed of the world that we're leaving to our young ones." Fiona writes: "The D word has begun to make my skin crawl and blood pressure rise. It's a word for reality TV, not important political and economic negotiations. Using it is playing into Trump's hands and his vision of what official international and domestic relationships should be. The only art to this 'deal' is artifice." "I liked your analogy of comparing some of Trump's ramblings to an old bloke in a bar mumbling his thoughts into a beer, but sadly, we have been adopting Americanisms for many years," writes Stuart. "My current personal hate is the use of the really nice English word 'schedule', but everybody - including news readers, for crying out loud - seems to be using the horrible and grating American pronunciation 'skedule'! I'm sure my English teacher shudders and turns in her grave." James from Bathurst writes: "Thank you for fleshing out the reasons why the word 'deal' is at best inadequate and at worst dangerous. Basically, it lacks respect for the gravity of what is being discussed - the consequences of which people like Mr Trump will never have to face personally or in their own lives." "Thank you for bringing this up, as I have been irritated by the 'D word' for quite a while," writes Patricia. "People are being killed and maimed in Gaza and Ukraine and enduring immense suffering. Having an arrogant old man ignoring all of this and just boasting about his 'deal-making' abilities is truly sickening. He hasn't managed to achieve anything anyway." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to I wonder what they'd make of the world were they still around to see it. My mother, the political scientist, saw World War II through the eyes of a child, only to shiver through the chill of the Cold War as an adult. Her brother, the journalist, who on his deathbed a quarter of a century ago lamented the creeping aggression in the society he was soon to leave. The world they left was very different to the one that confounds us today. He died the year before Al Qaeda flew the hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon; she almost a year to the day after the US launched its disastrous invasion of Iraq. Both missed the advent of social media and its toxic effect on public discourse. And they were spared the relentless 24-hour news cycle, which was only in its infancy. There were no influencers then and reality TV, with its manufactured "celebrities", was only just taking off - not that either would have bothered watching any of it. And they would have scoffed at any suggestion Donald Trump could step from the pages of trashy gossip magazines into the corridors of power. Indeed, I doubt they'd have known who he was. My mother had watched with keen interest the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Vladimir Putin was a relative newcomer when she died, first elected in 2000, then re-elected in 2004. She'd have had no inkling that he'd manoeuvre himself into unassailable power and embark on a program of territorial expansion. I imagine she'd have been horrified by the serial defenestration, poisoning and imprisonment of his political rivals. A celebrated motoring writer, my uncle had an abiding love of European - especially Italian - cars. I often wonder how he'd feel about the vehicles that infest our modern roads. Surely, the bloated utes and American pick-up trucks would have him rolling in his grave. Would he be horrified by the profusion of digital touch screens and dashboards? I doubt he'd warm to driving an iPad. Nor can I see him coping with the aggression on our roads, which seems to have become worse since he died. Maybe that's because of the ubiquity of the smartphone with its camera, as well as the dashcam - technology he didn't see - recording so many instances of road rage and reckless driving. I think of my mother and uncle frequently these days. Part of me wants to bring them back to life, to talk about the troubling state of the world, to help me make sense of it. But then I baulk. They should rest in peace and be spared the cruelty, vulgarity and idiocy to which we have to bear witness in this first quarter of the 21st century. HAVE YOUR SAY: What would your departed relatives make of the modern world? Has life improved since they were alive? Or has it become harder to make sense of? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Australia's second-largest internet company, TPG Telecom, says it has been hit by a cyberattack, affecting 280,000 customers. - The Coalition appears likely to support any government decision to send Australian peacekeepers to Ukraine if security talks between US and European leaders bring peace to the war-torn nation. - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised the government's economic roundtable will deliver long-lasting change through consensus, as he opened the three-day summit in Canberra. THEY SAID IT: "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." - James Baldwin YOU SAID IT: An ugly word has crept into our language, thanks to the pathologically transactional Donald Trump. Wherever possible, we should ditch the word "deal". "I'm so very tired of hearing of Trump's deals and no deals, and of the winners and losers," writes Deb. "How very sad that he is a role model to a generation of boys and young men. I'm so glad I'm of the age that I'm on my way out, rather than on the way in, I'm ashamed of the world that we're leaving to our young ones." Fiona writes: "The D word has begun to make my skin crawl and blood pressure rise. It's a word for reality TV, not important political and economic negotiations. Using it is playing into Trump's hands and his vision of what official international and domestic relationships should be. The only art to this 'deal' is artifice." "I liked your analogy of comparing some of Trump's ramblings to an old bloke in a bar mumbling his thoughts into a beer, but sadly, we have been adopting Americanisms for many years," writes Stuart. "My current personal hate is the use of the really nice English word 'schedule', but everybody - including news readers, for crying out loud - seems to be using the horrible and grating American pronunciation 'skedule'! I'm sure my English teacher shudders and turns in her grave." James from Bathurst writes: "Thank you for fleshing out the reasons why the word 'deal' is at best inadequate and at worst dangerous. Basically, it lacks respect for the gravity of what is being discussed - the consequences of which people like Mr Trump will never have to face personally or in their own lives." "Thank you for bringing this up, as I have been irritated by the 'D word' for quite a while," writes Patricia. "People are being killed and maimed in Gaza and Ukraine and enduring immense suffering. Having an arrogant old man ignoring all of this and just boasting about his 'deal-making' abilities is truly sickening. He hasn't managed to achieve anything anyway." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to I wonder what they'd make of the world were they still around to see it. My mother, the political scientist, saw World War II through the eyes of a child, only to shiver through the chill of the Cold War as an adult. Her brother, the journalist, who on his deathbed a quarter of a century ago lamented the creeping aggression in the society he was soon to leave. The world they left was very different to the one that confounds us today. He died the year before Al Qaeda flew the hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon; she almost a year to the day after the US launched its disastrous invasion of Iraq. Both missed the advent of social media and its toxic effect on public discourse. And they were spared the relentless 24-hour news cycle, which was only in its infancy. There were no influencers then and reality TV, with its manufactured "celebrities", was only just taking off - not that either would have bothered watching any of it. And they would have scoffed at any suggestion Donald Trump could step from the pages of trashy gossip magazines into the corridors of power. Indeed, I doubt they'd have known who he was. My mother had watched with keen interest the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Vladimir Putin was a relative newcomer when she died, first elected in 2000, then re-elected in 2004. She'd have had no inkling that he'd manoeuvre himself into unassailable power and embark on a program of territorial expansion. I imagine she'd have been horrified by the serial defenestration, poisoning and imprisonment of his political rivals. A celebrated motoring writer, my uncle had an abiding love of European - especially Italian - cars. I often wonder how he'd feel about the vehicles that infest our modern roads. Surely, the bloated utes and American pick-up trucks would have him rolling in his grave. Would he be horrified by the profusion of digital touch screens and dashboards? I doubt he'd warm to driving an iPad. Nor can I see him coping with the aggression on our roads, which seems to have become worse since he died. Maybe that's because of the ubiquity of the smartphone with its camera, as well as the dashcam - technology he didn't see - recording so many instances of road rage and reckless driving. I think of my mother and uncle frequently these days. Part of me wants to bring them back to life, to talk about the troubling state of the world, to help me make sense of it. But then I baulk. They should rest in peace and be spared the cruelty, vulgarity and idiocy to which we have to bear witness in this first quarter of the 21st century. HAVE YOUR SAY: What would your departed relatives make of the modern world? Has life improved since they were alive? Or has it become harder to make sense of? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Australia's second-largest internet company, TPG Telecom, says it has been hit by a cyberattack, affecting 280,000 customers. - The Coalition appears likely to support any government decision to send Australian peacekeepers to Ukraine if security talks between US and European leaders bring peace to the war-torn nation. - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised the government's economic roundtable will deliver long-lasting change through consensus, as he opened the three-day summit in Canberra. THEY SAID IT: "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." - James Baldwin YOU SAID IT: An ugly word has crept into our language, thanks to the pathologically transactional Donald Trump. Wherever possible, we should ditch the word "deal". "I'm so very tired of hearing of Trump's deals and no deals, and of the winners and losers," writes Deb. "How very sad that he is a role model to a generation of boys and young men. I'm so glad I'm of the age that I'm on my way out, rather than on the way in, I'm ashamed of the world that we're leaving to our young ones." Fiona writes: "The D word has begun to make my skin crawl and blood pressure rise. It's a word for reality TV, not important political and economic negotiations. Using it is playing into Trump's hands and his vision of what official international and domestic relationships should be. The only art to this 'deal' is artifice." "I liked your analogy of comparing some of Trump's ramblings to an old bloke in a bar mumbling his thoughts into a beer, but sadly, we have been adopting Americanisms for many years," writes Stuart. "My current personal hate is the use of the really nice English word 'schedule', but everybody - including news readers, for crying out loud - seems to be using the horrible and grating American pronunciation 'skedule'! I'm sure my English teacher shudders and turns in her grave." James from Bathurst writes: "Thank you for fleshing out the reasons why the word 'deal' is at best inadequate and at worst dangerous. Basically, it lacks respect for the gravity of what is being discussed - the consequences of which people like Mr Trump will never have to face personally or in their own lives." "Thank you for bringing this up, as I have been irritated by the 'D word' for quite a while," writes Patricia. "People are being killed and maimed in Gaza and Ukraine and enduring immense suffering. Having an arrogant old man ignoring all of this and just boasting about his 'deal-making' abilities is truly sickening. He hasn't managed to achieve anything anyway." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to I wonder what they'd make of the world were they still around to see it. My mother, the political scientist, saw World War II through the eyes of a child, only to shiver through the chill of the Cold War as an adult. Her brother, the journalist, who on his deathbed a quarter of a century ago lamented the creeping aggression in the society he was soon to leave. The world they left was very different to the one that confounds us today. He died the year before Al Qaeda flew the hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon; she almost a year to the day after the US launched its disastrous invasion of Iraq. Both missed the advent of social media and its toxic effect on public discourse. And they were spared the relentless 24-hour news cycle, which was only in its infancy. There were no influencers then and reality TV, with its manufactured "celebrities", was only just taking off - not that either would have bothered watching any of it. And they would have scoffed at any suggestion Donald Trump could step from the pages of trashy gossip magazines into the corridors of power. Indeed, I doubt they'd have known who he was. My mother had watched with keen interest the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Vladimir Putin was a relative newcomer when she died, first elected in 2000, then re-elected in 2004. She'd have had no inkling that he'd manoeuvre himself into unassailable power and embark on a program of territorial expansion. I imagine she'd have been horrified by the serial defenestration, poisoning and imprisonment of his political rivals. A celebrated motoring writer, my uncle had an abiding love of European - especially Italian - cars. I often wonder how he'd feel about the vehicles that infest our modern roads. Surely, the bloated utes and American pick-up trucks would have him rolling in his grave. Would he be horrified by the profusion of digital touch screens and dashboards? I doubt he'd warm to driving an iPad. Nor can I see him coping with the aggression on our roads, which seems to have become worse since he died. Maybe that's because of the ubiquity of the smartphone with its camera, as well as the dashcam - technology he didn't see - recording so many instances of road rage and reckless driving. I think of my mother and uncle frequently these days. Part of me wants to bring them back to life, to talk about the troubling state of the world, to help me make sense of it. But then I baulk. They should rest in peace and be spared the cruelty, vulgarity and idiocy to which we have to bear witness in this first quarter of the 21st century. HAVE YOUR SAY: What would your departed relatives make of the modern world? Has life improved since they were alive? Or has it become harder to make sense of? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Australia's second-largest internet company, TPG Telecom, says it has been hit by a cyberattack, affecting 280,000 customers. - The Coalition appears likely to support any government decision to send Australian peacekeepers to Ukraine if security talks between US and European leaders bring peace to the war-torn nation. - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised the government's economic roundtable will deliver long-lasting change through consensus, as he opened the three-day summit in Canberra. THEY SAID IT: "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." - James Baldwin YOU SAID IT: An ugly word has crept into our language, thanks to the pathologically transactional Donald Trump. Wherever possible, we should ditch the word "deal". "I'm so very tired of hearing of Trump's deals and no deals, and of the winners and losers," writes Deb. "How very sad that he is a role model to a generation of boys and young men. I'm so glad I'm of the age that I'm on my way out, rather than on the way in, I'm ashamed of the world that we're leaving to our young ones." Fiona writes: "The D word has begun to make my skin crawl and blood pressure rise. It's a word for reality TV, not important political and economic negotiations. Using it is playing into Trump's hands and his vision of what official international and domestic relationships should be. The only art to this 'deal' is artifice." "I liked your analogy of comparing some of Trump's ramblings to an old bloke in a bar mumbling his thoughts into a beer, but sadly, we have been adopting Americanisms for many years," writes Stuart. "My current personal hate is the use of the really nice English word 'schedule', but everybody - including news readers, for crying out loud - seems to be using the horrible and grating American pronunciation 'skedule'! I'm sure my English teacher shudders and turns in her grave." James from Bathurst writes: "Thank you for fleshing out the reasons why the word 'deal' is at best inadequate and at worst dangerous. Basically, it lacks respect for the gravity of what is being discussed - the consequences of which people like Mr Trump will never have to face personally or in their own lives." "Thank you for bringing this up, as I have been irritated by the 'D word' for quite a while," writes Patricia. "People are being killed and maimed in Gaza and Ukraine and enduring immense suffering. Having an arrogant old man ignoring all of this and just boasting about his 'deal-making' abilities is truly sickening. He hasn't managed to achieve anything anyway."
Perth Now
44 minutes ago
- Perth Now
China to showcase military might with massive parade
China will stage a massive military parade next month involving tens of thousands of people in the heart of Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War Two, following the surrender of Japan. Hundreds of aircraft including fighter jets and bombers as well as ground equipment, some of which have never been seen in public before, will be featured in the parade, military officials said at a press conference on Wednesday. The parade on September 3, the second such procession since 2015 to observe the formal surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, will be a show of China's military strength as some of its neighbours and Western nations look on with concern over the projection of power by the People's Liberation Army in recent years. From trucks fitted with devices to take out drones, new tanks and early warning aircraft to protect China's aircraft carriers, military attaches and security analysts say they are expecting China to display a host of new weapons and equipment at the parade. Additions to its expanding suite of missiles, particularly anti-ship versions and weapons with hypersonic capabilities, will be particularly closely watched as the US and its allies prepare to counter China in any future regional conflict. "(The weapons and equipment) will fully demonstrate our military's robust ability to adapt to technological advancements, evolving warfare patterns, and win future wars," Wu Zeke, deputy director of the military parade, told reporters. The 70-minute-long "Victory Day" parade, comprising 45 contingents of troops, will be surveyed by President Xi Jinping at Tiananmen Square alongside a number of foreign leaders and dignitaries including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also attended the 2015 parade. At the last World War Two parade, more than 12,000 soldiers, including diverse contingents from Russia and Belarus to Mongolia and Cambodia, marched through the city alongside veterans. Beijing had also mobilised over 500 pieces of military equipment and 200 aircraft. Many Western leaders had shunned the 2015 event, wary of the message that China would send with its exhibition of military might.
